LETTER: Noem’s health care claims are bogus

Talk about it

To the Editor:

Saturday’s mail brought me a Noem ad about how Varilek’s plans will weaken Medicare. I know she rides horses, so she should understand what comes out of the back end of one. This ad is a large pile of it.

These are the three points she made:

Obamacare cuts $716 billion from Medicare.

Noem gives the impression that the law takes money that was already allocated to Medicare, but this is not true. What is true is that over the next 10 years, there will be $716 billion in cuts from reduced reimbursements to hospitals and reducing overpayments to insurance companies for Medicare Advantage plans (which are private competitors to standard Medicare) and in reimbursements to various other providers. Not one dime is taken from beneficiaries.

There will be 15 unelected bureaucrats in charge of deciding the quality of care for seniors.

She is referring to the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), which is to help reduce the rate of growth in Medicare spending. The health-care law clearly states the IPAB recommendations cannot lead to rationing of health care and limits recommendations that would change benefits, modify eligibility or increase Medicare beneficiary cost-sharing, such as deductibles, coinsurance and co-payments. The Congressional Budget Office, which is a nonpartisan agency and gives budget and economic analysis to Congress, has estimated the IPAB could reduce Medicare spending by $28 billion between 2010 and 2019.

Seven million seniors to lose current health care coverage.

Why would you lose coverage? If you are still working and your company decides it will not offer insurance, you might lose coverage. Most seniors get their coverage from Medicare. There will be exchanges created, where you can look at a number of insurance programs and find the one that fits you best. The government is not telling you where to buy and you are still using a private for-profit insurance company. You might also get subsidies to pay for your health insurance based on your insurance costs and income.

Tags: election 2012, kristi noem, opinion, updates, letters, healthcare